Piragash Swargaloganathan

Overview

Piragash Swargaloganathan disrupted a 2017 Israel Day event at Cornell University (Cornell) as an activist of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). He is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of March 2022, Swargaloganathan’s LinkedIn page said he was a medical student at the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesdah, Maryland, slated to graduate in 2024.

Swargaloganathan’s LinkedIn also said he was a “United States Navy Veteran” and that he served as a full-time “Special Procedures Technologist” at Sibley Memorial Hospital from June 2019 to July 2020 and a Cardiovascular Technologist at the Holy Cross Health from August 2015 to July 2016, as well as a “Section Leader” on the Medical Evaluation and Treatment Unit of the US Navy from August 2013 to March 2015.

As of March 2022, Swargaloganathan’s LinkedIn also said he was licensed as a Certified Cardiographic Technician (CCT) since 2013 and a Health Care Provider for Basic Life Support with the American Heart Association (AHA) since September 2013, license expiring in July 2022.

As of the same date, Swargaloganathan’s LinkedIn said he was a registered Cardiovascular interventional specialist (RCIS) with the Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI), since August 2012, as well as a Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) with AHA, license issued in March 2015.

Swargaloganathan’s LinkedIn said he graduated from Cornell with a bachelor’s degree in “Human Biology, Health and Society” in 2019, and that he studied “Biology/Biological Sciences” at Montgomery College (MC) in 2014-2015.

As of March 2022, Swargaloganathan was reportedly located in Maryland.

Disrupting Israeli Independence Day Celebration

On May 2, 2017, Cornell’s student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, reported that Swargaloganathan with other Cornell SJP activists disrupted Cornell Hillel’s Israeli Independence Day celebration in Anabel Taylor Hall by holding a “die-in” protest in the middle of the event.

Cornell SJP activists were granted entrance to the event venue after they assured campus police they would not disrupt the Hillel event. However, within minutes of entering the hall, four members of Cornell SJP held up a sign that read: “Celebrating 69 years of Genocide,” while others handed out flyers or lay on the floor, simulating corpses.

Cornell SJP members reportedly distributed flyers that said: “the modern day Jewish state was founded on the expulsion of the indigenous population.”

Following the disruption, Swargaloganathan reportedly stated: “...we need the people who are celebrating this event to be uncomfortable and to confront that they are celebrating a genocide...”

Anti-Israel Activism

On January 29, 2017, the Cornell Sun reported that Swargalonathan helped organize the “People’s School,” a social justice event on Cornell campus open to Ithaca community members, as well as Cornell students and staff.

At the event, Swargaloganathan reportedly led a discussion about Cornell’s relationship to “Palestinian injustices,” including its partnership with the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and claimed that Cornell tacitly supported “Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.”

Swargaloganathan also reportedly said that his intention was to draw attention to Cornell’s actions against Palestine, and ultimately to hold a Student Assembly (SA) referendum later in the spring.

Supporting BDS

On October 19, 2017, in an article for The Cornell Daily Sun, Swargaloganathan said: “What we support is what the Palestinians call for, which right now is for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions.”

Cornell SJP - Whitewashing Terrorist Rasmea Odeh 2014-2015

On August 20, 2014, Cornell SJP tweeted: “Arrest of Odeh is part of the systematic criminalization of Palestinian organizing #Justice4Rasmea.”

Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08] with the terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who masterminded a bombing in a Jerusalem supermarket in 1969 that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate. Odeh later moved to the United States, where she was convicted of immigration fraud in 2014, stripped of her U.S. citizenship in 2017 and deported to Jordan.

On November 6, 2014, Cornell SJP tweeted: “Cornell SJP is in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh!” accompanied by a link to their statement titled: “Justice For Rasmea Odeh, Justice For Palestine.”

In their statement, Cornell SJP claimed that Israel detained Odeh “on a spurious accusation of terrorism” and added: “Rasmea Odeh is the type of citizen that American leaders should be honoring.”

On March 16, 2015, Cornell SJP posted to Facebook and Instagram: “#justiceforrasmea #CornellSJP #resistance #freepalestine” and attached a photo of Cornell SJP activists holding a large banner that read: “Justice for Rasmea.”

Cornell SJP also posted a blog post to their WordPress titled: “Justice Denied: Rasmea Odeh Sentenced To Prison And Subsequent Deportation” that condemned the U.S. court’s decision to sentence and deport Odeh and labeled the decision “the repression of Palestinian activists.”

Cornell SJP - Disrupting Israeli Independence Day Celebration 2014-2015

On April 23, 2015, Cornell SJP held a march and “die-in” protest during Hillel’s Israel Day at Cornell. Protesters lay on the floor, simulating corpses in front of Hillel's Israel Day tables, while holding a banner that read: “Celebrating 67 years of Independence Genocide.”

One protester displayed a sign that said: “Celebrating Apartheid,” while another held a sign reading: “Celebrating Genocide.”

SJP

SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.

The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.

SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.

SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.

SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.

Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.